The new study models three main ways to reduce these gases through diet. One option is to immediately halt our consumption of meat and switch to plant-based diets. Another is to replace only certain animal-based products in our diets. The third option is where the researchers believe there is the greatest potential for change, while also being achievable: this scenario would see us phasing out global meat consumption and transitioning to a plant-based diet over a 15-year period.

Their model also factored in how much additional carbon could be captured in each scenario if we restored the land leftover from livestock production into biomass-rich ecosystems again.

The numbers that the model churned out are striking. Phasing out meat over 15 years would have the same climate benefit as cutting 25 gigatons of CO2 emissions annually from the atmosphere. Current yearly anthropogenic emissions are 36 gigatons a year—so that means that the effects of this relatively gradual dietary change would achieve a 68% reduction in anthropogenic emissions by century-end.